LOG10E mystery constant

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 9:26 PM, John Cowan <cowan at mercury.ccil.org> wrote:
> Mark S. Miller scripsit:
>> > This is the only constant whose actual value differs across browsers:
> >
> > 0.43429448190325176 v8 version 2.3.9 [console: dumb]
> > 0.4342944819032518 Chrome 11.0.672.2 dev
>> [etc.]
>> The two values are really the same value when represented as an IEEE
> double. The difference is in the printing routine, not the internal
> representation. Specifically, the "...2518" browsers are rounding, the
> "...25176" browsers are not.
>
But they convert to back to two different floating point numbers, at least
on all the browsers I quickly tried.
> 0.43429448190325176 === 0.4342944819032518
false
> 0.43429448190325176 < 0.4342944819032518
true
> 0.43429448190325176 > 0.4342944819032518
false
A little more testing reveals that the two numbers seem to be consecutive,
in the sense that there are no intermediate representable numbers.
>> "Floating-point numbers are a little like sandpiles; every time you pick
> one up, you get a little less sand and a little more dirt." (But this
> is not true of integers up to 2^53, slightly less than 10^16.
>> --
> John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>
> Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.
> --Calvin, giving Newton's First Law "in his own words"
>
--
Cheers,
--MarkM
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